METHODS: A steering committee identified three areas to address: (1) burden of disease and diagnosis of reflux disease; (2) proton pump inhibitor-refractory reflux disease; (3) Barrett's oesophagus. Three working groups formulated draft statements with supporting evidence. Discussions were done via email before a final face-to-face discussion. We used a Delphi consensus process, with a 70% agreement threshold, using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria to categorise the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations.
RESULTS: A total of 32 statements were proposed and 31 were accepted by consensus. A rise in the prevalence rates of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in Asia was noted, with the majority being non-erosive reflux disease. Overweight and obesity contributed to the rise. Proton pump inhibitor-refractory reflux disease was recognised to be common. A distinction was made between refractory symptoms and refractory reflux disease, with clarification of the roles of endoscopy and functional testing summarised in two algorithms. The definition of Barrett's oesophagus was revised such that a minimum length of 1 cm was required and the presence of intestinal metaplasia no longer necessary. We recommended the use of standardised endoscopic reporting and advocated endoscopic therapy for confirmed dysplasia and early cancer.
CONCLUSIONS: These guidelines standardise the management of patients with refractory gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and Barrett's oesophagus in the Asia-Pacific region.
AIM: To study factors associated with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and advanced fibrosis, and medical treatment of biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients.
METHODS: Retrospective study of biopsy-proven NAFLD patients from centres in the GO ASIA Workgroup. Independent factors associated with NASH and with advanced fibrosis on binary logistic regression analyses in a training cohort were used for the development of their corresponding risk score, which were validated in a validation cohort.
RESULTS: We included 1008 patients from nine centres across eight countries (NASH 62.9%, advanced fibrosis 17.2%). Independent predictors of NASH were body mass index ≥30 kg/m2 , diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, alanine aminotransferase ≥88 U/L and aspartate aminotransferase ≥38 U/L, constituting the Asia Pacific NASH risk score. A high score has a positive predictive value of 80%-83% for NASH. Independent predictors of advanced fibrosis were age ≥55 years, diabetes mellitus and platelet count <150 × 109 /L, constituting the Asia-Pacific NAFLD advanced fibrosis risk score. A low score has a negative predictive value of 95%-96% for advanced fibrosis. Only 1.7% of patients were referred for structured lifestyle program, 4.2% were on vitamin E, and 2.4% were on pioglitazone.
CONCLUSIONS: More severe liver disease can be suspected or ruled out based on factors identified in this study. Utilisation of structured lifestyle program, vitamin E and pioglitazone was limited despite this being a cohort of biopsy-proven NAFLD patients with majority of patients having NASH.
METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional survey conducted between September and December 2013 in 10 countries/regions across Asia. Adult patients with a history of cancer pain at least 1 month before study entry completed the survey questionnaire.
RESULTS: A total of 1190 patients were included. The mean Box Scale-11 (BS-11) pain score was 6.0 (SD 2.1), with 86.2% experiencing moderate-to-severe pain and 53.2% receiving opioids at time of the survey. The mean BS-11 scores were 5.3 (SD 2.1) in the "others" (single non-opioid medication or untreated) group, 6.3 (SD 2.0) in the ≥2 non-opioids group and 6.7 (SD 1.9) in the opioid group. The proportions of patients experiencing moderate-to-severe pain were 79.1%, 87.3% and 93.7%, respectively. About 70% of patients reported adverse events due to their pain medications, about half had received medications to manage these symptoms. Adverse events were negatively associated with activities of daily living (P < 0.0001). Pain and hindrance to activities of daily living were negatively associated with employment status (P = 0.003 and 0.021). Unemployment was significantly associated with poorer quality of life (P < 0.0001).
CONCLUSION: This analysis demonstrates inadequate management of cancer pain and treatment-related adverse events in the participating cohort. Pain and inadequate management of adverse events were negatively associated with patients' overall well-being. More collaborative efforts should be taken to optimize pain treatment and increase awareness of adverse event management in physicians.
METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of data from 759 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD (24% with advanced fibrosis), seen at 10 centers in 9 countries in Asia, from 2006 through 2018. By using liver biopsies as the reference standard, we calculated percentages of misclassifications and indeterminate or discordant results from assessments made based on fibrosis scores (NAFLD fibrosis score [NFS] or Fibrosis-4 score) and liver stiffness measurements (LSMs), alone or in combination. The analysis was repeated using randomly selected subgroups with a different prevalence of advanced fibrosis (histologic fibrosis stage ≥F3).
RESULTS: In groups in which 3.7% and 10% of patients had advanced fibrosis, a 2-step approach (using the NFS followed by LSM only for patients with indeterminate or high NFS) and using a gray zone of 10 to 15 kPa for LSM, produced indeterminate or discordant results for 6.9% of patients and misclassified 2.7% of patients; only 25.6% of patients required LSM. In the group in which 10% of patients had advanced fibrosis, the same approach produced indeterminate or discordant results for 7.9% of patients and misclassified 6.6% of patients; only 27.4% of patients required LSM. In groups in which 24% and 50% of patients had advanced fibrosis, using LSM ≥10 kPa alone for the diagnosis of advanced fibrosis had the highest accuracy and misclassified 18.1% and 18.3% of patients, respectively. These results were similar when the Fibrosis-4 score was used in place of NFS.
CONCLUSIONS: In a retrospective analysis, we found that a 2-step approach using fibrosis scores followed by LSM most accurately detects advanced fibrosis in populations with a low prevalence of advanced fibrosis. However, LSM ≥10 kPa identifies patients with advanced fibrosis with the highest level of accuracy in populations with a high prevalence of advanced fibrosis.
METHODS: We abstracted the data of 1008 patients with NAFLD from nine centers across eight countries. Characteristics of elderly and non-elderly patients with NAFLD were compared using 1:3 sex-matched analysis.
RESULTS: Of the 1008 patients, 175 were elderly [age 64 (62-67) years], who were matched with 525 non-elderly patients [46 (36-54) years]. Elderly patients were more likely to have advanced fibrosis (35.4% vs. 13.3%; p
AIM: To identify the association of baseline GGT level and QRISK2 score among patients with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
METHODS: This was a retrospective study involving 1535 biopsy-proven NAFLD patients from 10 Asian centers in 8 countries using data collected by the Gut and Obesity in Asia (referred to as "GO ASIA") workgroup. All patients with available baseline GGT levels and all 16 variables for the QRISK2 calculation (QRISK2-2017; developed by researchers at the United Kingdom National Health Service; https://qrisk.org/2017/; 10-year cardiovascular risk estimation) were included and compared to healthy controls with the same age, sex, and ethnicity. Relative risk was reported. QRISK2 score > 10% was defined as the high-CVD-risk group. Fibrosis stages 3 and 4 (F3 and F4) were considered advanced fibrosis.
RESULTS: A total of 1122 patients (73%) had complete data and were included in the final analysis; 314 (28%) had advanced fibrosis. The median age (interquartile range [IQR]) of the study population was 53 (44-60) years, 532 (47.4%) were females, and 492 (43.9%) were of Chinese ethnicity. The median 10-year CVD risk (IQR) was 5.9% (2.6-10.9), and the median relative risk of CVD over 10 years (IQR) was 1.65 (1.13-2.2) compared to healthy individuals with the same age, sex, and ethnicity. The high-CVD-risk group was significantly older than the low-risk group (median [IQR]: 63 [59-67] vs 49 [41-55] years; P < 0.001). Higher fibrosis stages in biopsy-proven NAFLD patients brought a significantly higher CVD risk (P < 0.001). Median GGT level was not different between the two groups (GGT [U/L]: Median [IQR], high risk 60 [37-113] vs low risk 66 [38-103], P = 0.56). There was no correlation between baseline GGT level and 10-year CVD risk based on the QRISK2 score (r = 0.02).
CONCLUSION: The CVD risk of NAFLD patients is higher than that of healthy individuals. Baseline GGT level cannot predict CVD risk in NAFLD patients. However, advanced fibrosis is a predictor of a high CVD risk.
AIM: To evaluate the preferred diagnosis and management practices of BE among Asian endoscopists.
METHODS: Endoscopists from across Asia were invited to participate in an online questionnaire comprising eleven questions regarding diagnosis, surveillance and management of BE.
RESULTS: Five hundred sixty-nine of 1016 (56.0%) respondents completed the survey, with most respondents from Japan (n = 310, 54.5%) and China (n = 129, 22.7%). Overall, the preferred endoscopic landmark of the esophagogastric junction was squamo-columnar junction (42.0%). Distal palisade vessels was preferred in Japan (59.0% vs 10.0%, P < 0.001) while outside Japan, squamo-columnar junction was preferred (59.5% vs 27.4%, P < 0.001). Only 16.3% of respondents used Prague C and M criteria all the time. It was never used by 46.1% of Japanese, whereas 84.2% outside Japan, endoscopists used it to varying extents (P < 0.001). Most Asian endoscopists (70.8%) would survey long-segment BE without dysplasia every two years. Adherence to Seattle protocol was poor with only 6.3% always performing it. 73.2% of Japanese never did it, compared to 19.3% outside Japan (P < 0.001). The most preferred (74.0%) treatment of non-dysplastic BE was proton pump inhibitor only when the patient was symptomatic or had esophagitis. For BE with low-grade dysplasia, 6-monthly surveillance was preferred in 61.9% within Japan vs 47.9% outside Japan (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSION: Diagnosis and management of BE varied within Asia, with stark contrast between Japan and outside Japan. Most Asian endoscopists chose squamo-columnar junction to be the landmark for esophagogastric junction, which is incorrect. Most also did not consistently use Prague criteria, and Seattle protocol. Lack of standardization, education and research are possible reasons.
METHOD: The study was divided into two parts: the first part was conducted to derive the EUS features of chronic pancreatitis with adequate interoperator agreement; the second was to prospectively evaluate these features in a multicenter cross-sectional study and determine the optimal combination of features for the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. Prospectively enrolled cases had standard internationally validated radiologic or histologic features of chronic pancreatitis, and controls were patients without chronic pancreatitis who underwent EUS examination.
RESULTS: The top six EUS features that had good interobserver agreement (mean kappa 0.73, range 0.60 - 0.90) were selected to be further evaluated in part II of the study. These included: hyperechoic foci with shadowing, lobularity with honeycombing, cysts, dilated main pancreatic duct, dilated side branches, and calculi in the main pancreatic duct. A total of 284 subjects (132 cases, 152 controls) were enrolled from 12 centers in Asia. All six features had high accuracy ranging from 63.3 % to 89.1 %. Two or more of these six EUS features accurately defined chronic pancreatitis (sensitivity 94.7 %, specificity 98.0 %), with an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.986.
CONCLUSION: This multicenter Asian study characterized and defined the EUS features of chronic pancreatitis. This provides a useful tool in clinical practice and further research in pancreatic cancer surveillance.
METHOD: Retrospective cross-sectional study, including all consecutive cases of epithelial invasive tumours, from January 2016 to December 2018. Other histological types were excluded. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed.
RESULT: A total of 115 breast tumours were identified. Ten tumours were excluded (five ductal carcinoma in situ, four phyllodes, and one sarcoma), leaving a study population of 105 patients. Median age of presentation was 53 years (min 30; max 97). A total of 41.9% presented before the age of 50. Patients of Indigenous ethnic origins were 11 years younger at presentation than non-Indigenous women. Tumour grade was more likely to be higher among Indigenous women.
CONCLUSION: Median age of presentation of BC in Sandakan matches regional data; however, patients of Indigenous ethnic groups present even earlier. Screening guidelines should consider the growing evidence of young BC in SEA.